1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to machines for slicing ground meats into relatively thin slices, and particularly, to machines for slicing rolls of sausage into thin, discrete patties.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,654,978 and 3,669,167, I have described two types of powered machines utilized for slicing bulk meat into relatively thin slices, and particularly, in the case of the most recently patented of those machines, for slicing a sticky meat, such as sausage, into thin patties. It is with respect to those machines illustrated and described in my prior patents that the present invention constitutes an improvement.
A number of machines have previously been built, marketed and placed in use for slicing various comestibles and food stuffs into thin slices or into patties. Machines functioning to manufacture, by slicing or other technique, thin, separated slices of hamburger meat or ground beef are well known. Many of these machines function quite effectively at high speed to produce large numbers of marketable patties or slices in a relatively short time.
A special problem is encountered in the preparation of patties of sausage. This meat has a tacky or sticky quality which causes it to be adherent to any surface with which it may come into contact, and it is, moreover, relatively soft and is greasier than ground beef. These characteristics make it more difficult to cleanly slice a roll or bulk quantity of sausage into thin patties in such a way that the patties are retained in a selected and discrete geometric form without distortion, and without loss of significant quantities of the meat by reason of adherence of particles to the slicing blades, or to the mechanism which carries the sausage through the blades. Moveover, the softness and pliability of the sausage require that in order for a slicing operation to be successfully carried out, the force applied to the sausage must be such that a flattening of the patty is not developed, and distorting forces are minimized. Finally, the softness and stickiness of sausage makes it impossible to manufacture patties thereof in forming or molding machines.
In the machines described in my two prior patents referred to above, sausage in roll form can be sliced relatively effectively in comparison to other machines which have been used for slicing other food stuffs. Nevertheless, some lack of optimization has been observed in that my prior slicing machines have not been able to consistently yield truly round, disk-shaped patties which display little distortion or flattening at the side edges thereof, and which do not tend to ride up on the cutting blades or become distorted in the course of cutting. Further, the machines have left room for some improvement in reducing the amount of sausage lost through adherence to the cutting blades or to the cradles or structures in which the sausage roll is placed as it is passed through the cutting blades.